The University of Birmingham has made an impressive 15 place rise to 62nd in this year's QS World University Rankings, cementing its position in the top 100 universities globally and placing it 10th in the UK.

Students from the UK and around the world will have free access to some of the country's top universities thanks to FutureLearn Ltd, an entirely new company being launched by The Open University (OU). The universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, King's College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick have all signed up to join FutureLearn.

Written by Dr Adrian Campbell. The apparent disappearance of Russian president Vladimir Putin between March 5 and 16 provoked a festival of Kremlinological speculation on a scale not seen since the temporary ousting of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the abortive coup of 1991.